As telecommunications networks have become increasingly complex, the effective administration of such networks, including to increase efficiency and to reduce error-rates, has become more and more difficult.
Telecommunications networks consist of a number of network components which may generally be classed as network elements (NE's), and links.
NE's such as transmitters, amplifiers, routers, antenna base stations, etc. generally transmit, manipulate, and/or receive a telecommunication signal either passively or actively. NE's can be either a single device, or may be a collection of devices, or even a sub-network of devices including links therebetween, performing a particular function, or located in a particular geographic location.
Links carry signals between NE's, whether through optical fibers, copper wires, microwaves, or through other media. A link may be a physical link, for example a single optical fiber carrying only one signal. Alternatively, a link may be a logical link, for example one of many lambda's or wavelengths of a multiplexed-signal-carrying optical fiber.
To assist in the administration of telecommunications networks, network administrators typically use graphical user interfaces (GUI's) operating on a computer system connected to the network. Information is gathered from the network components by the computer system, and is displayed in the GUI for viewing by the network administrator. The functioning of the network can also often be manipulated by the network administrator using the GUI. Using such GUI's, network administrators can, among other things, view the status of data transmission over the network, improve the efficiency of the network, maximize use of the network components, and be altered to, and locate alarms in the network.
One useful view which is often incorporated into a network administration GUI is a network topology, namely a graphical representation of a geographic and/or logical structure of the network. Such topologies allow network administrators to easily and quickly understand the interaction between different network components which form the network. The structure of the network is typically represented in the network topology by displaying NE icons representing the NE's, and link lines drawn between the NE icons representing links which carry signals between these NE's.
As networks have become increasingly complex, various solutions have been provided to allow the topology of the network to be viewed in a meaningful manner.
For example, where the network has a large number of NE's, such that the representation of each NE and link in a single view would render the network topology extremely complex and impossible to read, a common solution is to divide the NE's of the network into a number of NE groups, divided either logically, or geographically. A means is then provided for the network administrator to select the NE group to view, and then only those NE's belonging to the selected NE group, and the links associated therewith, are represented in the network topology. Of course, multiple windows displaying network topologies of the same NE group, or different NE groups could be open at the same time.
Another source of network topology complexity is where there exist multiple links between a pair of NE's, in a link bundle. Where the number of links in a link bundle is small, the multiple links may be represented by multiple link lines drawn between a pair of NE icons. However, where a link bundle contains a large number of links, as can be the case of example where there exist a number of multiplexed lambda's or wavelengths on an optical fiber or where a large number of physically separate links are represented together as a link bundle for convenience, the representation of these individual links becomes complex, and the display of multiple link lines renders a network topology too cluttered to easily comprehend. In such cases, instead of representing each of the links between a pair of NE's individually, a convention has arisen to use a different, and visually distinctive representation of the link bundle between the two NE's, for example by displaying a thick line between the corresponding NE icons instead of a thin line. Thus, a network topology could contain both thin link lines and thick link bundle lines displayed between NE icons, representing single links, and link bundles, respectively.
When viewing a network topology, network administrators may at times need to obtain further information about a particular link bundle, for example where the GUI indicates that a performance alarm has arisen in respect of that link bundle. Network administration GUI's have typically addressed this need by allowing network administrators to select the link bundle line representing the affected link bundle, whereupon a link bundle content window would be opened, displaying information for each of the links contained in that link bundle, typically in a tabular format.
However, as the analysis of network administration issues has become increasingly complex, this method of viewing the contents of link bundles has become inadequate. Mainly, in considering a particular network issue, it may be necessary for the network administrator to view the contents of multiple link bundles at the same time. This results in the simultaneous display of multiple link bundle content windows. Where there are only two or three such link bundle content windows open, the network administrator may, with some effort, be able to recall which link bundle line in the network topology is associated with each link bundle content window. The network administrator may be assisted in this regard through identification aids, such as the use of descriptive information appearing in the header for each link bundle content window, or by upon selection of a link bundle content window, highlighting in the network topology the associated link bundle line. However, such aids tend to be ineffective, and the extra coding and processing required to maintain such window linking and state management can result in performance degradation.
In any event, such aids become wholly inadequate as the number of link bundle content windows the network administrator needs to view increases from two or three to five or even ten. In such cases, it becomes almost impossible for the network administrator to keep track of which link bundle content window relates to which link bundle. Thus, a problem of association occurs, which leads to difficulty analyzing the network and the particular issue the network administrator is seeking to address.
Indeed, this problem is exacerbated where in analyzing the issue, the network administrator needs to view the contents of link bundles associated with more than one NE group, as is often the case. In such circumstances, instead of the GUI displaying a single network topology window displaying the topology for one NE group, the GUI would need to display multiple network topology windows displaying topologies for multiple NE groups. If the network administrator then opens a number of link bundle content windows to view the contents of link bundles associated with these NE groups, he or she will be faced with multiple network topology windows, and multiple link bundle content windows, with no easy means of identifying the origin of each link bundle content window.
This scenario raises other problems. For example, owing to desktop clutter resulting from the large number of open windows, it may be difficult to find the window of interest. Further, when the network administrator wishes to view the network topology associated with a particular link bundle content window the bringing of that network topology window into focus may obscure the link bundle content window of interest requiring the network administrator to move one or the other of the windows. Additionally, a problem of orphan windows may result when the network administrator closes a network topology window leaving behind link bundle content windows originating from that network topology window with no reference topology window.
Thus, present network administration GUI's do not provide a means of viewing the contents of link bundles in a manner which allows network administrators to easily associate the contents of link bundles with the link bundles themselves.
Another problem commonly faced by network administrators when using network administration GUI's arises when attempting to follow a link from one NE group to another. In a typical network administration GUI, a network topology displaying the structure of one NE group will indicate where an NE has a link to an NE of a second NE group. This inter-group link is usually indicated by displaying a link line extending from an NE icon and terminating with an off-page connector icon. Upon selecting the off-page connector icon, the GUI will display, either in a separate window or in the same window, a network topology displaying the structure of the second NE group.
This is relatively straightforward where there exists only a single inter-group link associated with a particular NE, or even where there are multiple inter-group links associated with that NE, each of such inter-group links terminating at a single other NE of a single other NE group. However, difficulties arise where these multiple inter-group links associated with a particular NE terminate at multiple different NE's of a single other NE group, or multiple other NE groups. In such cases, the readily understood display of information about these inter-group links, the navigation between the present NE group and the NE group at which an inter-group link terminates, as well as the representation in the network topology of these inter-group links, all become very difficult.